turism&travel : Berlin lends statue of Pharaoh to Metropolitan Museum for 10 years

Saturday 06 August 2011

A monumental ancient Egyptian statue of a seated pharaoh—probably Amenemhat II—will be lent to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Berlin's renowned Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz for a period of ten years, beginning this month.
The ten-foot-tall, nearly nine-ton, 4,000-year-old sculpture entered the Berlin museum's collection in 1837. Because of a construction project now underway—to renovate the courtyard on Museumsinsel (Museum Island) where the artwork has most recently been displayed—the statue had to be moved, thereby providing the opportunity for this long-term loan. The sculpture will go on view in the Metropolitan's Great Hall for approximately one year before it is moved into The Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries of Egyptian Art. The Middle Kingdom sculpture is an outstanding example of ancient Egypt's magnificent colossal statuary, of which very few examples can be found in American museums.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, commented: “Thanks to the generosity of our colleagues in Berlin, this splendid statue will be on loan to the Met for the next ten years, allowing a very rare glimpse at such monumental Egyptian sculpture in the United States. To celebrate its arrival, we are installing this imposing pharaoh for the coming year in our Great Hall, where it will surely awe our visitors and encourage them to explore the Met's own outstanding Egyptian collections.”

The single block of stone (granodiorite) from which the sculpture was carved was quarried at Aswan, then shipped north over more than 500 miles to the area of Memphis, near present-day Cairo. The sculpting was completed in this location, and the statue was erected in a temple complex.

The sculpture depicts a seated king—wearing only a kilt around the hips and upper legs—on a simple cubic throne with a short vertical seatback. A kind of blanket spread over the top of the seat hangs down at the back. The ceremonial bull's tail that all pharaohs wore—attached to their belts, as a sign of their strength—is seen between the king's legs. On his head is the royal head cloth called nemes; and over the forehead is the royal cobra, symbolizing the ruler's awesome power. The pharaoh also wears a ceremonial (false) beard, and in his right hand he holds a piece of cloth, which is a status symbol (perhaps originally a cloth to wipe sweat from the forehead).

On the basis of style, the sculpture has been assigned to the reign of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat II (ca. 1919–1885 B.C.). Some six centuries later, the 19th Dynasty kings Ramesses II (reigned ca. 1279–1213 B.C.) and Merneptah (reigned ca. 1213–1203 B.C.) had their names and titles inscribed on it. (At this time, the statue was probably transported to Piramesse, the capital of the Ramesside kings, in the eastern Delta.) The incised broad collar and a pectoral with the names of Ramesses II, and underneath it Merneptah on the chest of the statue, are also later additions. Some of the facial features—such as the mouth and ears, as well as portions of the eyes, nemes, and cobra—also were altered to resemble images of Ramesses II. The statue was moved again, 200 years later, to Tanis (now called San el-Hagar), the residence of the kings of Dynasty 21 and 22. Probably at this time the name of Seth in titularies of Ramesses and Merneptah was erased, because this god—although revered at Piramesse—was otherwise a very ambivalent figure. Traces of repair on both sides of the throne indicate that the sculpture may have broken during transport from Piramesse to Tanis. Early in the 19th century, the statue was uncovered at Tanis.